Marketing Project Wiki
Welcome to the Marketing 300 Group Project Page! Hello everyone! Feel free to edit in whatever you would like on this wiki. If you want to paste a link, please put it in the "Links" section. Our paper will go in the "Paper" section. Everything else such as our notes, findings, etc., will be placed in the "Random Notes" section. M&M's Project Since we are working with M&Ms anything you can find would be great! Please feel free to post whatever you find/see/eat etc. Product: By Stacey Oetzel * Candy & 30 lincenses to promote other products * ** M&Ms * ** Clothes * ** Candy dispensers * ** Racing stuff * ** Home stuff * ** Collectibles * Packaging * ** 12.6-18.4 oz bags (Candy) * ** In stores * Color, Options, Sizes * ** Milk chocolate, Peanut, Dark peanut, Almond, Peanut, Premiums, Mimis, Baking bits, Ice cream treats * ** Yellow, Red, Green, Blue, Orange * Newest product/crave * ** Customized M&Ms * ** *** Picture, Message, Promote business * Themes * ** Red & Pink-Vday * ** Black & Orange- Halloween * ** Red & Green- Christmas * ** Neon- Easter Promotion for M&Ms: Chapters 14, 15, & 16 Hannah Smith-Conway Competitive Advantage: * unique product: chocolate with a hard outer covering, it melts in your mouth, not in your hand; colorful * relatively low prices make it pretty accessible to everyone Advertising Television * On average, M&M places about $26 million, or 54%, of its media budget in TV * Most TV advertisement is done on cable, rather than on the network channels, with channels such as TBS, TNT, and Lifetime * Competitor Hershey spends more of its budget on TV, almost 81% * Half of it was spent on primetime, and shown on the major TV networks such as NBC and ABC Website * The website is easy to access and is very clear and laid out in a very organized manner * Some of the most significant features of the website are: * M&M’s news * New products by M&M * Recipes for M&Ms * M&M crafts * About M&Ms * Includes history, products, the commercial characters, and where to buy * Fun & Games * Includes E-Cards, Downloads, M&M ads to watch * Ability to Create Own M&M personality * Also a gallery a celebrity M&Ms * Shopping for Merchandise * This includes customized M&Ms and M&M merchandise Social Media * M&M on Facebook * Page has 898,593 fans on Facebook * M&M also has three twitter accounts * One by Ms. Green, the M&M Magazines * It is active in high-reaching popular titles such as People, In Style, TV Guide, Star and ESPN the Magazine. Promotions with Films/ Events * a limited-edition "Strawberried Peanut Butter" variant to tie in with the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen * marketing tie-in with the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, "Mint Crisp" M&M's. * Dark chocolate varieties of peanut and regular M&M’s were first introduced with Star Wars: Episode Six * Supports Breast Cancer with Susan G. Komen for the Cure M&M’s * Partnership between NASCAR racing and M&M’s M&M Mars executes Promotion in its Marketing Mix very well. One of the most well known forms of Promotion used for M&M’s is advertising. Most of the advertising for M&M’s is done on television, as on average, M&M uses about $26 million, or a little over 50% of its media budget on television. M&M does most of its television advertisement is done on cable, as opposed to the network channels. M&M mostly places advertising on channels such as TBS, TNT, and Lifetime. Another way that M&M showcases its product is through its website. The website is very easy to access and laid out in a very organized manner. Some of the most significant features showcased by the website include: M&M news, new products by M&M, recipes by M&M, M&M crafts, and about M&M’s. There is a great deal of information about the different products offered by M&M’s, as well as a history on M&M‘s and current news about the company. One thing that is quite interesting on the website is contained in the Fun and Games section. It gives website visitors the ability to create their own M&M personality. Furthermore, customers are able to buy customized M&M’s and M&M merchandise through this website. M&M also uses social media in order to spread the word about its new products, and remind consumers about older products. M&M has its own page on Facebook where it has almost 900,000 fans and continues to grow daily. In addition, M&M has three twitter accounts, including one by Ms. Green, one of the brand characters used by M&M. One last form of advertising used by M&M’s is magazines. M&M tends to advertise in popular titled magazines such as People, In Style, TV Guide, Star, and ESPN the Magazine. M&M’s also tends to partner with special events or premieres in order to promote its product. One recent example of this partnering was a limited-edition “Strawberried Peanut Butter M&M” that helped to promote the movie release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Also as the film Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was released, M&M released a new Mint Crisp M&M for the film. Dark chocolate peanut and regular M&M’s were introduced with Start Wars: Episode Six. Also there has been support by M&M’s for Breast Cancer with the Susan G Komen for the Cure M&M’s. M&M in recent years has also begun a partnership with NASCAR, and it sponsors its own driver and race team. Place: One of the three most important decisions any company has to make when selling their product is location. The place portion for the Mars Company, especially for their M&M’s sector is extremely varied. Since they are a convenience good, their strategy coincides. They aim to be where the consumer is, and where is that exactly? Everywhere from convince stores such as gas stations, to drugstores, grocery stores, wholesalers, sporting and other entertainment venues concession stands, mass marketers, movie theaters, and now especially online. All of this really works to overcome spatial discrepancies. To dispel discrepancy of quantity, they have many different sizes. For discrepancy of assortment they have easy to carry packages. Because it is a candy, you do not need anything else to enjoy the product. They do not create any unnecessary assoatiions with a beverage or another product such as what Oreo does with milk, so that you have the complete package right there when you buy the product. Mars is incredibly proficient at dispelling temporal discrepancy by having unique holiday products (such as Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas, Halloween, the SuperBowl, etc.), movie related products (Star Wars, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, the Adam’s Family, etc.), and even special edition flavors (coconut, wildly cherry). Mars has teamed up with many different companies such as Disney, Martha Stewart, and many sports teams for their new line of customized M&M’s. M&M’s are in supermarkets, drugstores, conveniences stores, discount stores (mass merchandizers especially), supercenters, warehouse membership clubs, resturants (incoporate in different menu items), nonstore retailing (automatic vending!!), and electronic retailing – in this case online retailing (for the personalized m&m’s). The way that Mars utilizes M&M’s status as a standardized product I by selling though a merchant wholesalers. They then take possession of the candy and reship it to the appropriate retailers. Using direct channeling, M&M’s are sold via online shopping and at their “M&M’s World” locations in Las Vegas, Orlando, and New York City. Their second most common channel is through major retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Target. The most common form of channeling is through wholesalers. Because they have multiple ways of delivering their product to the consumers, they are considered a multiple distribution company. Through intensive distribution, they have gained their maximum market coverage. In Canada, M&M’s had the best placement in almost every store I saw. They were always at or near the very top of the candy displays. In both the US and Canada, and most likely everywhere Mars sells M&M’s the displays include about 3-6 different types of M&M’s. This way there is a variety, but it is not overwhelming for the shopper. Because M&M’s are a convenience good, it is all in the placement of the items. The easier it is to just grab-and-go, the better. During different holidays, M&M’s promotes their holiday lines in very innovative ways. For Valentines, their displays were in a prime location in the Valentine’s section. The variety increased for Easter, which included new products with a special “pop-out” sign in front of their place. This was also present in the promotion of their “special edition” flavors. Overall, Mars has a very competitive advantage when it comes to placement. They not only have used an incredibly diverse selection of stores to place their products in they have also aquired the best locations within those stores. They seem to have many special displays, a variety of locations within those stores (sometimes four or more!), products placed at eye level, and for the ____ size, at children’s eye level. Category:Browse Category:Promotion